British Grand Prix LIVE: Sebastian Vettel wins as Lewis Hamilton recovers from last to second after first-lap crash
Lewis Hamilton missed out on a record-breaking sixth British Grand Prix as Sebastian Vettel won at Silvestone to clinch his fourth win of the season and extend his championship lead to eight points.
After a first-lap accident with Kimi Raikkonen, Hamilton found himself last but mounted a superb comeback drive to put himself back into contention and finish second, limiting the damage as best as he could, by finishing just two seconds behind his championship rivals - albeit with the help of two safety car interventions.
Raikkonen served a 10-second penalty for taking out Hamilton at the start, but recovered well himself to overtake both Red Bulls and come home in third, with Valtteri Bottas slipping from first to fourth in a handful of lap. Re-live the action below.
That's all from us from the British Grand Prix where it just wasn't to be for Lewis Hamilton. The chance to win a record-breaking sixth British GP win goes begging, but the brilliant drive through to claim second by the chequered flag brought the race to life. For Vettel, it was a marvelous overtake on Bottas to snatch the victory, and he takes a deserved eight-point lead to the next race in Germany in two weeks' time.
This is the greatest race of the year and the greatest crowd, so I'm sorry I couldn't bring it home today. It's these guys that kept me going, so I won't stop going for it.
My team did an amazing job this weekend and there's so much pressure and support. Interesting tactics from this side, but we'll keep fighting on our side.
The safety car spiced it up but it was a nice battle with Valtteri and I was pushing like crazy. I had the tyres but I wasn't sure if I was going to make the corner!
A big thanks to the team because I wasn't in great shape yesterday but they patched me up, a bit of work, maybe I'll feel it a bit later!
Kimi Raikkonen
Third corner, I locked the wheel and was behind the car so ended up hitting Lewis in the rear corner. He spun so obviously my bad but that's how it goes sometimes. It was my mistake so that's fine, I deserve it. I took the 10 seconds and kept fighting, that's how it goes.
Without the mistakes and 10-second penalty it would have been better, but I tried, obviously my view is I did the best that I could but always there's opposite looks on what I do.
Sadly, Lewis Hamilton has gone straight to the cool-down room so has nothing to say yet, but he does shake hands with Vettel to congratulate him. It's fair to say he's not in the best of moods.
Chequered flag: It's win No 4 for Vettel as he extends his championship lead, but Hamilton will be relieved to see that gap grow to just eight points as it could have been much, much worse. After 30 seconds of the race, Hamilton was dead last and looking at a nightmare afternoon, but a brilliant recovery and two helpful safety car interventions helped him to second place.
Lap 50: The gap between Hamilton and Vettel is 2.4s and while Hamilton is giving it all he's got, the Ferrari looks to have this one in the bag unless Vettel makes a mistake.
Lap 47: Vettel takes the lead! Bottas gets loose coming out of the Loop and Vettel sends it down the inside into Brooklands with a committed move. Will Hamilton follow him through? Will Bottas fight back? Vettell is away and sets a 1:30.696 fastest lap to pull away. Verstappen meanwhile pulls off the track with a problem.
Lap 45: Vettel is right on the gearbox of Bottas, but the Mercedes engine has the grunt to just keep him at bay when they hit the long straights. This is anyone's race.
Lap 44: This is brilliant! Vettel has another go at Bottas and the Finn gets his elbows out, sending Vettel one way and then the other. He just holds on but it's bringing Hamilton into play - and also Raikkonen. It's four drivers within 1.5s!
Lap 43: Verstappen gets it horribly wrong on the exit of Chapel and that gives Raikkonen the run down the Hangar Straight, which he duly takes to take fourth.
Lap 42: Vettel has a run at Bottas for the lead, but he shuts the door going into Brooklands - that was crucially without DRS. It's not looking good for Mercedes, but Bottas starts to pull away over the rest of the lap.
Lap 39: Sainz was trying to pass Grosjean around the outside into Copse - a bold one by all accounts - and as he squeezed Grosjean the two collided and went off. Grosjean got a touch loose too that made contact ultimately inevitable, but both are ok.
Lap 39: Bottas gets a flying restart and disappears into the distance. Vettel is safe though as Hamilton is struggling at the start here. Behind him, Raikkonen has a run at Verstappen on the Wellington Straight for fourth. He gets the position, but Verstappen fights back and holds it by going around the outside of Luffield, before finally getting it at Copse.
Another crash! Sainz and Grosjean are off big time at Copse and it's another safety car immediately!
